For a long time, Kuafu's feelings for Renhe have always been grateful, trusting, and even somewhat dependent, perhaps because he is far away from the home planet, the earth, and the instinct of human beings to be afraid of loneliness makes Kuafu willing to accept Renhe's kindness wholeheartedly.

Of course, this kind of relationship did not arise from the beginning, and it has undergone several transformations during this period. From the time when Kuafu had lost all hope, Renhe Civilization suddenly appeared in front of him, bringing new hope to the already desperate Kuafu crew. At that time, no matter what hope there is, no matter how ethereal it is, Kuafu will use all his strength to grasp it.

In the early days of the civilization with Renhe, because of the huge difference in life forms, it was not smooth, and the crew of Kuafu tried their best to exert their wisdom so that the other party could understand human civilization and understand Kuafu's current situation, and they were eager to get their trust and help.

It wasn't until the Renhe civilization did bring Kuafu the hope of survival that the human race landed on Renhe's huge flying star and received Renhe's selfless help. In the process of contact, Renhe showed his strong vitality, ability to travel and advanced technology, allowing Kuafu to enter a new world as if in a dream. However, human beings and Renhe still can't communicate in a simple and direct way, and human beings begin to have suspicions, doubts, and fears because of this estrangement, and some people even think that Renhe civilization has gained the trust of human beings in this way, which is a way to use Kuafu as the object of experiments, obtain information about the earth, and then obtain the right to rule the planet where human beings live. This kind of thinking once frightened the Kuafu crew, and they just wanted to get out of Renhe's control as soon as possible, even if they drove the broken Kuafu back to the original unknown starry sky alone.

After a long time in this intermingling of ideas, the Kuafu finally completed the reconstruction and returned to the starry sky with the Pioneer Exploration Ship, while the Shennong embarked on the return journey back to Earth with the help of Renhe.

Human beings have a deeper understanding of Renhe, Renhe civilization is not as aggressive as imagined, and is not interested in the environment in which human beings live, they can transform the planet into an environment where they can live at will, and even drive such a planet to the starry sky. They don't have the greedy desires left over from the evolution of human beings, and they only have the instinct to fly and explore the wider universe in search of new directions of thought.

Instead of following the Shennong back to Earth, Renhe protected Kuafu to move forward, providing a safe route and hope that humanity could go to the galaxy.

"General Maintenance Department, how's the situation?" Deputy Commander-in-Chief Shao Hao asked in front of the command platform.

The atmosphere in the online hall was completely different from usual, more solemn and tense, and even Jiqing changed his usual lazy state and sat in his place in a regular manner. Although the Kuafu is still in a state of three-level combat readiness, the actual personnel readiness has been organized in accordance with the four-level early warning and combat readiness state, and all department personnel are at their posts and ready to receive orders at any time, except for those who are on leave.

Each person has their own detailed work arrangement, a set of prioritized task chains, even if the Kuafu command system is temporarily disabled or completely collapsed, each crew member can replace the damaged post according to the plan and carry out their own orders, in the most dangerous situation, to ensure the most basic operation of the Kuafu.

The temporary structure for the first shell damage repair has been completed, and the shell repair work is just halfway through, and a problem that everyone does not want to see, but is mentally prepared for has been discovered. The same damage was found on part of the front end of the Quafu. Although not yet fully inspected, the exterior signs suggest that the inside of these enclosures is the same as before.

"According to the report, temporary reinforcement has now been carried out at the two locations with the highest assessed risk level, which can be completed in another five hours. The other 24 locations are being tested and evaluated, and preliminary results will be available within 3 hours, and we will formulate a detailed plan and submit it for approval. ”

In front of the command platform, a pattern unfolded out of thin air, on which was a three-dimensional image of the entire ship of Kuafu, and the damaged areas were marked, three of which were shown in red, which should be the areas under emergency repair and the highest risk level. The details on the image can be seen that different maintenance machinery operates regularly in these areas, most of them are concentrated in the red area, and a small part is monitored and detected in real time in other damaged areas.

"According to the plan, only in advance, not later. Chief of the General Staff, if the maintenance department is understaffed, the reserve personnel give priority to them, and now the most important issue is the safety of the hull structure, and the problem of hull rupture can no longer occur. ”

"I will report the personnel needs separately, but at present, the most important thing is that the repair materials and equipment are insufficient, and we are working with the material management department to check all the materials of the ship, and strive to transform the minimum maintenance materials in a short time."

"The material department has completed the inventory of the materials of the whole ship, and the materials in the warehouse have been classified, and they will be transported to the processing plant in batches to ensure the full load operation of the processing plant. The temporary processing plant has been preliminarily completed and will be ready for use in another 2 hours. In addition, some structures of the internal hull can be used directly, and the dismantling plan was reported to the General Staff an hour ago, and we are waiting for a reply. ”

"The General Staff Department has completed the evaluation of some of the plans, and will send a reply immediately, and you can first implement and approve this part of the plan."

"Understood, let's hurry up and make arrangements."

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Shao Hao listened to their exchanges, and occasionally said something to his intelligent assistant, and when everyone finished speaking, he asked: "I remember you reported that although the shell was eroded by the dark rain, it still has a certain stability and strength, and it needs to be triggered before it can be destroyed. ”

"The scientific research department has sent over the gravitational wind model optimized with actual measurement data, and the intelligent system is simulating and calculating, and the results have come out 80%. The positions where the stress is maximum, the strain is maximum, and the frequency of change is the highest, and the detailed data model of the shell damage is still missing. ”

"Is there anything wrong with this long time?"

"Report, there's a special case." Someone from the scientific research department suddenly interjected.

Everyone is a little strange, because the main work of the scientific research department is generally to study space phenomena and crack the science and technology of Renhe civilization, and should not participate in the relatively simple maintenance work of the whole ship, even the theory of materials and structures is not their job, and the intelligent assistant combined with the mature theoretical model of earth science and technology can completely solve all problems. But since they are speaking, there are unusual questions.

"What's the problem?" Shao Hao turned his head away, his expression heavy.

"Originally, the simulation calculation results of the maintenance department have been completed, but just now we found a problem, in order to avoid the loss of computing power and resources, we first notified the maintenance department, and suspended the implementation of part of the plan according to the actual situation. The specific report was not submitted to the General Command, as it was not yet finalized. ”

Under the manipulation of the scientific research department, the virtual image in front of the wave changed the picture, showing the actual image of a dismantled hull shell in the laboratory, which should be the damaged one.

"In order to study this space phenomenon, we called in several shell fragments from the maintenance department. Deputy Commander-in-Chief, you see, next to the traditional instrument detection data construction of the internal material, the shell has the phenomenon of erosion, and the surface, the shape is irregular, the microscopic edge is neat, the position is random, most of the cavities are closed structure, these small damage caused by the shell rupture is the main reason. ”

"From what is known now, the possibility of a problem in the manufacturing process of the material has been ruled out, and it is not a phenomenon known to mankind to invade space. However, there is a common sense that everyone should know that matter will not disappear out of thin air, and all matter and energy in the universe should satisfy the law of mass and energy balance. ”

"The shell is destroyed by an unknown force, the matter is missing, and the missing matter is certainly not gone, but transformed into other matter or energy. If it is converted into energy, it is generally similar to the annihilation of positive and antimatter after they meet, and the energy explosion generated by the process is not to mention boasting, even the earth cannot afford it. ”

According to the mass-energy conversion equation, the energy produced by the complete annihilation reaction of 1 gram of matter is 1800000000000K-J, and the energy completely released by 1 kilogram of T-N-T (trinitro-toluene) is about 4200K-J, that is to say, the energy produced by the complete annihilation of 1 gram of substance is equivalent to about more than 40,000 tons of T-N-T. More than 40,000 tons of T_N_T are the size of a hill even if they are piled up on the ground, and the energy that can be released can make people shudder when they think about it, and this is only the energy produced by the annihilation of 1 gram of matter.

"So we're more inclined to the transformation between substances. If it is converted into matter, it may become dark matter that we cannot touch, and we cannot understand this process, so we will not talk about it for the time being. ”

The image in the air shifts to another image, the image of the maintenance robot repairing the shell, and the picture pauses in one place, zooming in on the hull shell at the maintenance robot's site, where the mysterious pitting on the surface of the shell is clearly displayed.

"Watch here." The person from the scientific research department indicated the enlarged position on the picture, and the maintenance machinery had brought up a thin substance in the outer shell, like a layer of mist, which was not obvious at all unless you looked closely. Jiqing suddenly thought that he had also found a very unusual slippery feeling in the defect of the cabin console, he didn't care, and thought it was dust or grease.

"We took samples from there, and after research, we found that the material with the broken shell did not disappear into energy or dark matter, but remained in place, adsorbed on the surface of the shell in the environment of microgravity and static electricity of the hull, and slowly spread into space over time until it disappeared. This is also the case inside the material. ”

The image switches to the lab, where the enclosure is laser-cut into small pieces and then mechanically cut apart, avoiding the effects of high heat on the interior. In one of the most successful cuts, you can clearly see that a liquid-like substance flows out of the defect with the continuous tilt of the section, and finally a thin layer is scattered on the collection box spread out below.

Another image zooms in on one side of the overall image, showing a small transparent vial containing substances in strange states. After the mechanical arm shook slightly, the surface of the substance fluctuated like a liquid several times, and soon regained its calm, and the phenomenon of layering magically appeared below.

"These particles that are broken down into nanoscales are the materials of the original shell, and they completely lose the connection between the original molecules and atoms, and separate from the whole to become independent tiny individuals. In the later conventional detection method, under the results of internal differences and discontinuous media, it is temporarily determined as defective voids. ”

"How is this possible?" All the crew members who saw this scene were attracted by the phenomenon in front of them, and some people couldn't help but say this sentence.

What kind of force can decompose the whole matter so thoroughly, and the connection between the molecules is the basis for the strength of the hull shell material. Although the strength of a ship's hull in the universe may not be worth mentioning, and there are a large number of high-energy objects that can destroy it, it is unheard of to have such a silent penetration into the material and produce such an effect.

"Since the substance has not been lost, our scientific research department is studying the possibility of in-situ repair of the shell, and is now trying to use the external application of high temperature and high pressure to melt the nano-scale particles to form a whole again, but the proportion of these particles completely restored to the original shell alloy is not high, and the overall strength is still in the experiment."

"How long will it take?"

"The situation is exceptional, and it is not yet possible to predict."

"In this case, the plan formulated by the original reinforcement plan of the maintenance department will continue to be implemented, and if the scientific research department has a new plan, it will be discussed."

"Power Department, Route Planning Department, how are you doing over there?" Shaohao will never drag his feet in doing things, and immediately carry out the next item after the stage order is issued, as the most important thing for the leader to coordinate and command, and not delay time in one thing, even if it is strange and incomprehensible, it must be handed over to the professional department to do, and arrange the most reasonable resource allocation and time node plan.

"There is no change in the plan, everything is executed according to plan, the allocation of resources has been put in place, the personnel arrangement has been completed, there are no other needs, and now we are paying close attention to the latest data from the radar detection department."

"Radar Detection Department?"

"The data exchange of the exploration vehicle is operating normally, and there are no signs of the next dark rain attack for the time being."

"Ministry of Communications and Information?"

"Everything is normal, the internal and external communication systems are normal, and the communication with the Pioneer Ship and Shennong is normal. In addition, the information requested to contact Renhe is transmitted uninterrupted as planned, and no reply has been received yet. ”

"Okay, get back to me as soon as you have a message. Now connect the Pioneer ship and turn to the Commander-in-Chief. ”

"Yes!"

After a brief period of manoeuvring, Kwafu's real-time contact with the Pioneer Ship was connected, and a mentally healthy old man appeared on the screen, and the neatly arranged circular control console behind him was filled with busy crew members. The Pioneer is much smaller than the Quafu, there is no virtual connection system there, and the main departments and crew usually work in the command cabin of the central bridge, and only go down to the rest area during the shift.

"Commander-in-Chief!"

"Shaohao, I hope you give me good news."

"Everything is normal at the moment, all work is progressing as planned, and detailed reports are being transmitted."

"Yes, I'll leave it to you, I hope you will live up to the expectations of the entire crew."

"Thank you for your trust! Mission completion guaranteed! Shaohao stood upright and saluted a military salute. However, I would prefer to be on a mission to command the Pioneer Ship to detect the Dark Rain, after all, I have served in the Exploration Fleet and am familiar with the people and environment over there. ”

"What, you're afraid I'm incompetent? Although I have not served as long as you in the Vanguard, I am familiar with this side as well. Before Shao Hao could explain, the commander-in-chief continued, "I know what you mean, this time is not more than a conventional exploration mission, more attention is paid to research and analysis from the theoretical level, my research on space theory is much better than yours, this mission is the most suitable for me." ”

"But if there is an accident......

"That's what I'm most worried about, so I can't let you come over, I should have retired. Especially recently, I began to feel that I was gradually not qualified for the job of commander-in-chief of the fleet, and I had planned to enter the return warehouse in a year or two, depending on the specific physical condition, and give up the position to someone more suitable. Unexpectedly, Kuafu encountered this unprecedented crisis again. ”

Shao Hao did not refute this sentence, this is the tradition of Kuafu, optimize the allocation and consumption of resources, whether it is crew or equipment, so that Kuafu can go further, and the hope of mankind will have a greater chance of success. All crew members will choose to return at the end, which is the hero's destination.

"You have to take advantage of this crisis to prove your abilities, so that I can be more confident that I will hand over the position of commander-in-chief to a worthy successor. Hope I can come back safely! Shao Hao knew the meaning of the commander-in-chief's last sentence, which was not the cowardice of the danger he faced, but the hope that he could find a way forward for Kua's father and avoid this crisis smoothly.

After the commander-in-chief finished explaining to Shao Hao, he turned his head to face the online hall, he carefully looked at his familiar environment and the crew who were struggling together, waited quietly for a moment, and said in a stern and emotional language.

"Comrades-in-arms, now Kuafu has encountered a huge challenge, which is a problem that the universe has created for human civilization. This space phenomenon is untraceable, mysterious and extremely dangerous, something we have never encountered before, and we have no successful experience, or even no experience. However, I believe that as long as we unite and use our collective wisdom and strength, we will be the pioneers of another new history. All my comrades-in-arms and I of the Vanguard Ship will stand up for everyone, and we will be fearless for the sake of Kuafu and mankind towards a new era of the galaxy!"

"Fearless in the face of challenges!" All the people in the online hall solemnly swear.